t / READMEon commit tests: define GIT_TEST_SIDEBAND_ALL (07c3c2a)
   1Core GIT Tests
   2==============
   3
   4This directory holds many test scripts for core GIT tools.  The
   5first part of this short document describes how to run the tests
   6and read their output.
   7
   8When fixing the tools or adding enhancements, you are strongly
   9encouraged to add tests in this directory to cover what you are
  10trying to fix or enhance.  The later part of this short document
  11describes how your test scripts should be organized.
  12
  13
  14Running Tests
  15-------------
  16
  17The easiest way to run tests is to say "make".  This runs all
  18the tests.
  19
  20    *** t0000-basic.sh ***
  21    ok 1 - .git/objects should be empty after git init in an empty repo.
  22    ok 2 - .git/objects should have 3 subdirectories.
  23    ok 3 - success is reported like this
  24    ...
  25    ok 43 - very long name in the index handled sanely
  26    # fixed 1 known breakage(s)
  27    # still have 1 known breakage(s)
  28    # passed all remaining 42 test(s)
  29    1..43
  30    *** t0001-init.sh ***
  31    ok 1 - plain
  32    ok 2 - plain with GIT_WORK_TREE
  33    ok 3 - plain bare
  34
  35Since the tests all output TAP (see http://testanything.org) they can
  36be run with any TAP harness. Here's an example of parallel testing
  37powered by a recent version of prove(1):
  38
  39    $ prove --timer --jobs 15 ./t[0-9]*.sh
  40    [19:17:33] ./t0005-signals.sh ................................... ok       36 ms
  41    [19:17:33] ./t0022-crlf-rename.sh ............................... ok       69 ms
  42    [19:17:33] ./t0024-crlf-archive.sh .............................. ok      154 ms
  43    [19:17:33] ./t0004-unwritable.sh ................................ ok      289 ms
  44    [19:17:33] ./t0002-gitfile.sh ................................... ok      480 ms
  45    ===(     102;0  25/?  6/?  5/?  16/?  1/?  4/?  2/?  1/?  3/?  1... )===
  46
  47prove and other harnesses come with a lot of useful options. The
  48--state option in particular is very useful:
  49
  50    # Repeat until no more failures
  51    $ prove -j 15 --state=failed,save ./t[0-9]*.sh
  52
  53You can give DEFAULT_TEST_TARGET=prove on the make command (or define it
  54in config.mak) to cause "make test" to run tests under prove.
  55GIT_PROVE_OPTS can be used to pass additional options, e.g.
  56
  57    $ make DEFAULT_TEST_TARGET=prove GIT_PROVE_OPTS='--timer --jobs 16' test
  58
  59You can also run each test individually from command line, like this:
  60
  61    $ sh ./t3010-ls-files-killed-modified.sh
  62    ok 1 - git update-index --add to add various paths.
  63    ok 2 - git ls-files -k to show killed files.
  64    ok 3 - validate git ls-files -k output.
  65    ok 4 - git ls-files -m to show modified files.
  66    ok 5 - validate git ls-files -m output.
  67    # passed all 5 test(s)
  68    1..5
  69
  70You can pass --verbose (or -v), --debug (or -d), and --immediate
  71(or -i) command line argument to the test, or by setting GIT_TEST_OPTS
  72appropriately before running "make".
  73
  74-v::
  75--verbose::
  76        This makes the test more verbose.  Specifically, the
  77        command being run and their output if any are also
  78        output.
  79
  80--verbose-only=<pattern>::
  81        Like --verbose, but the effect is limited to tests with
  82        numbers matching <pattern>.  The number matched against is
  83        simply the running count of the test within the file.
  84
  85-x::
  86        Turn on shell tracing (i.e., `set -x`) during the tests
  87        themselves. Implies `--verbose`.
  88        Ignored in test scripts that set the variable 'test_untraceable'
  89        to a non-empty value, unless it's run with a Bash version
  90        supporting BASH_XTRACEFD, i.e. v4.1 or later.
  91
  92-d::
  93--debug::
  94        This may help the person who is developing a new test.
  95        It causes the command defined with test_debug to run.
  96        The "trash" directory (used to store all temporary data
  97        during testing) is not deleted even if there are no
  98        failed tests so that you can inspect its contents after
  99        the test finished.
 100
 101-i::
 102--immediate::
 103        This causes the test to immediately exit upon the first
 104        failed test. Cleanup commands requested with
 105        test_when_finished are not executed if the test failed,
 106        in order to keep the state for inspection by the tester
 107        to diagnose the bug.
 108
 109-l::
 110--long-tests::
 111        This causes additional long-running tests to be run (where
 112        available), for more exhaustive testing.
 113
 114-r::
 115--run=<test-selector>::
 116        Run only the subset of tests indicated by
 117        <test-selector>.  See section "Skipping Tests" below for
 118        <test-selector> syntax.
 119
 120--valgrind=<tool>::
 121        Execute all Git binaries under valgrind tool <tool> and exit
 122        with status 126 on errors (just like regular tests, this will
 123        only stop the test script when running under -i).
 124
 125        Since it makes no sense to run the tests with --valgrind and
 126        not see any output, this option implies --verbose.  For
 127        convenience, it also implies --tee.
 128
 129        <tool> defaults to 'memcheck', just like valgrind itself.
 130        Other particularly useful choices include 'helgrind' and
 131        'drd', but you may use any tool recognized by your valgrind
 132        installation.
 133
 134        As a special case, <tool> can be 'memcheck-fast', which uses
 135        memcheck but disables --track-origins.  Use this if you are
 136        running tests in bulk, to see if there are _any_ memory
 137        issues.
 138
 139        Note that memcheck is run with the option --leak-check=no,
 140        as the git process is short-lived and some errors are not
 141        interesting. In order to run a single command under the same
 142        conditions manually, you should set GIT_VALGRIND to point to
 143        the 't/valgrind/' directory and use the commands under
 144        't/valgrind/bin/'.
 145
 146--valgrind-only=<pattern>::
 147        Like --valgrind, but the effect is limited to tests with
 148        numbers matching <pattern>.  The number matched against is
 149        simply the running count of the test within the file.
 150
 151--tee::
 152        In addition to printing the test output to the terminal,
 153        write it to files named 't/test-results/$TEST_NAME.out'.
 154        As the names depend on the tests' file names, it is safe to
 155        run the tests with this option in parallel.
 156
 157-V::
 158--verbose-log::
 159        Write verbose output to the same logfile as `--tee`, but do
 160        _not_ write it to stdout. Unlike `--tee --verbose`, this option
 161        is safe to use when stdout is being consumed by a TAP parser
 162        like `prove`. Implies `--tee` and `--verbose`.
 163
 164--with-dashes::
 165        By default tests are run without dashed forms of
 166        commands (like git-commit) in the PATH (it only uses
 167        wrappers from ../bin-wrappers).  Use this option to include
 168        the build directory (..) in the PATH, which contains all
 169        the dashed forms of commands.  This option is currently
 170        implied by other options like --valgrind and
 171        GIT_TEST_INSTALLED.
 172
 173--root=<directory>::
 174        Create "trash" directories used to store all temporary data during
 175        testing under <directory>, instead of the t/ directory.
 176        Using this option with a RAM-based filesystem (such as tmpfs)
 177        can massively speed up the test suite.
 178
 179--chain-lint::
 180--no-chain-lint::
 181        If --chain-lint is enabled, the test harness will check each
 182        test to make sure that it properly "&&-chains" all commands (so
 183        that a failure in the middle does not go unnoticed by the final
 184        exit code of the test). This check is performed in addition to
 185        running the tests themselves. You may also enable or disable
 186        this feature by setting the GIT_TEST_CHAIN_LINT environment
 187        variable to "1" or "0", respectively.
 188
 189You can also set the GIT_TEST_INSTALLED environment variable to
 190the bindir of an existing git installation to test that installation.
 191You still need to have built this git sandbox, from which various
 192test-* support programs, templates, and perl libraries are used.
 193If your installed git is incomplete, it will silently test parts of
 194your built version instead.
 195
 196When using GIT_TEST_INSTALLED, you can also set GIT_TEST_EXEC_PATH to
 197override the location of the dashed-form subcommands (what
 198GIT_EXEC_PATH would be used for during normal operation).
 199GIT_TEST_EXEC_PATH defaults to `$GIT_TEST_INSTALLED/git --exec-path`.
 200
 201
 202Skipping Tests
 203--------------
 204
 205In some environments, certain tests have no way of succeeding
 206due to platform limitation, such as lack of 'unzip' program, or
 207filesystem that do not allow arbitrary sequence of non-NUL bytes
 208as pathnames.
 209
 210You should be able to say something like
 211
 212    $ GIT_SKIP_TESTS=t9200.8 sh ./t9200-git-cvsexport-commit.sh
 213
 214and even:
 215
 216    $ GIT_SKIP_TESTS='t[0-4]??? t91?? t9200.8' make
 217
 218to omit such tests.  The value of the environment variable is a
 219SP separated list of patterns that tells which tests to skip,
 220and either can match the "t[0-9]{4}" part to skip the whole
 221test, or t[0-9]{4} followed by ".$number" to say which
 222particular test to skip.
 223
 224For an individual test suite --run could be used to specify that
 225only some tests should be run or that some tests should be
 226excluded from a run.
 227
 228The argument for --run is a list of individual test numbers or
 229ranges with an optional negation prefix that define what tests in
 230a test suite to include in the run.  A range is two numbers
 231separated with a dash and matches a range of tests with both ends
 232been included.  You may omit the first or the second number to
 233mean "from the first test" or "up to the very last test"
 234respectively.
 235
 236Optional prefix of '!' means that the test or a range of tests
 237should be excluded from the run.
 238
 239If --run starts with an unprefixed number or range the initial
 240set of tests to run is empty. If the first item starts with '!'
 241all the tests are added to the initial set.  After initial set is
 242determined every test number or range is added or excluded from
 243the set one by one, from left to right.
 244
 245Individual numbers or ranges could be separated either by a space
 246or a comma.
 247
 248For example, to run only tests up to a specific test (21), one
 249could do this:
 250
 251    $ sh ./t9200-git-cvsexport-commit.sh --run='1-21'
 252
 253or this:
 254
 255    $ sh ./t9200-git-cvsexport-commit.sh --run='-21'
 256
 257Common case is to run several setup tests (1, 2, 3) and then a
 258specific test (21) that relies on that setup:
 259
 260    $ sh ./t9200-git-cvsexport-commit.sh --run='1 2 3 21'
 261
 262or:
 263
 264    $ sh ./t9200-git-cvsexport-commit.sh --run=1,2,3,21
 265
 266or:
 267
 268    $ sh ./t9200-git-cvsexport-commit.sh --run='-3 21'
 269
 270As noted above, the test set is built by going through the items
 271from left to right, so this:
 272
 273    $ sh ./t9200-git-cvsexport-commit.sh --run='1-4 !3'
 274
 275will run tests 1, 2, and 4.  Items that come later have higher
 276precedence.  It means that this:
 277
 278    $ sh ./t9200-git-cvsexport-commit.sh --run='!3 1-4'
 279
 280would just run tests from 1 to 4, including 3.
 281
 282You may use negation with ranges.  The following will run all
 283test in the test suite except from 7 up to 11:
 284
 285    $ sh ./t9200-git-cvsexport-commit.sh --run='!7-11'
 286
 287Some tests in a test suite rely on the previous tests performing
 288certain actions, specifically some tests are designated as
 289"setup" test, so you cannot _arbitrarily_ disable one test and
 290expect the rest to function correctly.
 291
 292--run is mostly useful when you want to focus on a specific test
 293and know what setup is needed for it.  Or when you want to run
 294everything up to a certain test.
 295
 296
 297Running tests with special setups
 298---------------------------------
 299
 300The whole test suite could be run to test some special features
 301that cannot be easily covered by a few specific test cases. These
 302could be enabled by running the test suite with correct GIT_TEST_
 303environment set.
 304
 305GIT_TEST_GETTEXT_POISON=<non-empty?> turns all strings marked for
 306translation into gibberish if non-empty (think "test -n"). Used for
 307spotting those tests that need to be marked with a C_LOCALE_OUTPUT
 308prerequisite when adding more strings for translation. See "Testing
 309marked strings" in po/README for details.
 310
 311GIT_TEST_SPLIT_INDEX=<boolean> forces split-index mode on the whole
 312test suite. Accept any boolean values that are accepted by git-config.
 313
 314GIT_TEST_FULL_IN_PACK_ARRAY=<boolean> exercises the uncommon
 315pack-objects code path where there are more than 1024 packs even if
 316the actual number of packs in repository is below this limit. Accept
 317any boolean values that are accepted by git-config.
 318
 319GIT_TEST_OE_SIZE=<n> exercises the uncommon pack-objects code path
 320where we do not cache object size in memory and read it from existing
 321packs on demand. This normally only happens when the object size is
 322over 2GB. This variable forces the code path on any object larger than
 323<n> bytes.
 324
 325GIT_TEST_OE_DELTA_SIZE=<n> exercises the uncommon pack-objects code
 326path where deltas larger than this limit require extra memory
 327allocation for bookkeeping.
 328
 329GIT_TEST_VALIDATE_INDEX_CACHE_ENTRIES=<boolean> checks that cache-tree
 330records are valid when the index is written out or after a merge. This
 331is mostly to catch missing invalidation. Default is true.
 332
 333GIT_TEST_COMMIT_GRAPH=<boolean>, when true, forces the commit-graph to
 334be written after every 'git commit' command, and overrides the
 335'core.commitGraph' setting to true.
 336
 337GIT_TEST_FSMONITOR=$PWD/t7519/fsmonitor-all exercises the fsmonitor
 338code path for utilizing a file system monitor to speed up detecting
 339new or changed files.
 340
 341GIT_TEST_INDEX_VERSION=<n> exercises the index read/write code path
 342for the index version specified.  Can be set to any valid version
 343(currently 2, 3, or 4).
 344
 345GIT_TEST_PRELOAD_INDEX=<boolean> exercises the preload-index code path
 346by overriding the minimum number of cache entries required per thread.
 347
 348GIT_TEST_REBASE_USE_BUILTIN=<boolean>, when false, disables the
 349builtin version of git-rebase. See 'rebase.useBuiltin' in
 350git-config(1).
 351
 352GIT_TEST_INDEX_THREADS=<n> enables exercising the multi-threaded loading
 353of the index for the whole test suite by bypassing the default number of
 354cache entries and thread minimums. Setting this to 1 will make the
 355index loading single threaded.
 356
 357GIT_TEST_MULTI_PACK_INDEX=<boolean>, when true, forces the multi-pack-
 358index to be written after every 'git repack' command, and overrides the
 359'core.multiPackIndex' setting to true.
 360
 361GIT_TEST_SIDEBAND_ALL=<boolean>, when true, overrides the
 362'uploadpack.allowSidebandAll' setting to true, and when false, forces
 363fetch-pack to not request sideband-all (even if the server advertises
 364sideband-all).
 365
 366Naming Tests
 367------------
 368
 369The test files are named as:
 370
 371        tNNNN-commandname-details.sh
 372
 373where N is a decimal digit.
 374
 375First digit tells the family:
 376
 377        0 - the absolute basics and global stuff
 378        1 - the basic commands concerning database
 379        2 - the basic commands concerning the working tree
 380        3 - the other basic commands (e.g. ls-files)
 381        4 - the diff commands
 382        5 - the pull and exporting commands
 383        6 - the revision tree commands (even e.g. merge-base)
 384        7 - the porcelainish commands concerning the working tree
 385        8 - the porcelainish commands concerning forensics
 386        9 - the git tools
 387
 388Second digit tells the particular command we are testing.
 389
 390Third digit (optionally) tells the particular switch or group of switches
 391we are testing.
 392
 393If you create files under t/ directory (i.e. here) that is not
 394the top-level test script, never name the file to match the above
 395pattern.  The Makefile here considers all such files as the
 396top-level test script and tries to run all of them.  Care is
 397especially needed if you are creating a common test library
 398file, similar to test-lib.sh, because such a library file may
 399not be suitable for standalone execution.
 400
 401
 402Writing Tests
 403-------------
 404
 405The test script is written as a shell script.  It should start
 406with the standard "#!/bin/sh", and an
 407assignment to variable 'test_description', like this:
 408
 409        #!/bin/sh
 410
 411        test_description='xxx test (option --frotz)
 412
 413        This test registers the following structure in the cache
 414        and tries to run git-ls-files with option --frotz.'
 415
 416
 417Source 'test-lib.sh'
 418--------------------
 419
 420After assigning test_description, the test script should source
 421test-lib.sh like this:
 422
 423        . ./test-lib.sh
 424
 425This test harness library does the following things:
 426
 427 - If the script is invoked with command line argument --help
 428   (or -h), it shows the test_description and exits.
 429
 430 - Creates an empty test directory with an empty .git/objects database
 431   and chdir(2) into it.  This directory is 't/trash
 432   directory.$test_name_without_dotsh', with t/ subject to change by
 433   the --root option documented above.
 434
 435 - Defines standard test helper functions for your scripts to
 436   use.  These functions are designed to make all scripts behave
 437   consistently when command line arguments --verbose (or -v),
 438   --debug (or -d), and --immediate (or -i) is given.
 439
 440Do's & don'ts
 441-------------
 442
 443Here are a few examples of things you probably should and shouldn't do
 444when writing tests.
 445
 446Here are the "do's:"
 447
 448 - Put all code inside test_expect_success and other assertions.
 449
 450   Even code that isn't a test per se, but merely some setup code
 451   should be inside a test assertion.
 452
 453 - Chain your test assertions
 454
 455   Write test code like this:
 456
 457        git merge foo &&
 458        git push bar &&
 459        test ...
 460
 461   Instead of:
 462
 463        git merge hla
 464        git push gh
 465        test ...
 466
 467   That way all of the commands in your tests will succeed or fail. If
 468   you must ignore the return value of something, consider using a
 469   helper function (e.g. use sane_unset instead of unset, in order
 470   to avoid unportable return value for unsetting a variable that was
 471   already unset), or prepending the command with test_might_fail or
 472   test_must_fail.
 473
 474 - Check the test coverage for your tests. See the "Test coverage"
 475   below.
 476
 477   Don't blindly follow test coverage metrics; if a new function you added
 478   doesn't have any coverage, then you're probably doing something wrong,
 479   but having 100% coverage doesn't necessarily mean that you tested
 480   everything.
 481
 482   Tests that are likely to smoke out future regressions are better
 483   than tests that just inflate the coverage metrics.
 484
 485 - When a test checks for an absolute path that a git command generated,
 486   construct the expected value using $(pwd) rather than $PWD,
 487   $TEST_DIRECTORY, or $TRASH_DIRECTORY. It makes a difference on
 488   Windows, where the shell (MSYS bash) mangles absolute path names.
 489   For details, see the commit message of 4114156ae9.
 490
 491 - Remember that inside the <script> part, the standard output and
 492   standard error streams are discarded, and the test harness only
 493   reports "ok" or "not ok" to the end user running the tests. Under
 494   --verbose, they are shown to help debug the tests.
 495
 496And here are the "don'ts:"
 497
 498 - Don't exit() within a <script> part.
 499
 500   The harness will catch this as a programming error of the test.
 501   Use test_done instead if you need to stop the tests early (see
 502   "Skipping tests" below).
 503
 504 - Don't use '! git cmd' when you want to make sure the git command
 505   exits with failure in a controlled way by calling "die()".  Instead,
 506   use 'test_must_fail git cmd'.  This will signal a failure if git
 507   dies in an unexpected way (e.g. segfault).
 508
 509   On the other hand, don't use test_must_fail for running regular
 510   platform commands; just use '! cmd'.  We are not in the business
 511   of verifying that the world given to us sanely works.
 512
 513 - Don't feed the output of a git command to a pipe, as in:
 514
 515     git -C repo ls-files |
 516     xargs -n 1 basename |
 517     grep foo
 518
 519   which will discard git's exit code and may mask a crash. In the
 520   above example, all exit codes are ignored except grep's.
 521
 522   Instead, write the output of that command to a temporary
 523   file with ">" or assign it to a variable with "x=$(git ...)" rather
 524   than pipe it.
 525
 526 - Don't use command substitution in a way that discards git's exit
 527   code. When assigning to a variable, the exit code is not discarded,
 528   e.g.:
 529
 530     x=$(git cat-file -p $sha) &&
 531     ...
 532
 533   is OK because a crash in "git cat-file" will cause the "&&" chain
 534   to fail, but:
 535
 536     test "refs/heads/foo" = "$(git symbolic-ref HEAD)"
 537
 538   is not OK and a crash in git could go undetected.
 539
 540 - Don't use perl without spelling it as "$PERL_PATH". This is to help
 541   our friends on Windows where the platform Perl often adds CR before
 542   the end of line, and they bundle Git with a version of Perl that
 543   does not do so, whose path is specified with $PERL_PATH. Note that we
 544   provide a "perl" function which uses $PERL_PATH under the hood, so
 545   you do not need to worry when simply running perl in the test scripts
 546   (but you do, for example, on a shebang line or in a sub script
 547   created via "write_script").
 548
 549 - Don't use sh without spelling it as "$SHELL_PATH", when the script
 550   can be misinterpreted by broken platform shell (e.g. Solaris).
 551
 552 - Don't chdir around in tests.  It is not sufficient to chdir to
 553   somewhere and then chdir back to the original location later in
 554   the test, as any intermediate step can fail and abort the test,
 555   causing the next test to start in an unexpected directory.  Do so
 556   inside a subshell if necessary.
 557
 558 - Don't save and verify the standard error of compound commands, i.e.
 559   group commands, subshells, and shell functions (except test helper
 560   functions like 'test_must_fail') like this:
 561
 562     ( cd dir && git cmd ) 2>error &&
 563     test_cmp expect error
 564
 565   When running the test with '-x' tracing, then the trace of commands
 566   executed in the compound command will be included in standard error
 567   as well, quite possibly throwing off the subsequent checks examining
 568   the output.  Instead, save only the relevant git command's standard
 569   error:
 570
 571     ( cd dir && git cmd 2>../error ) &&
 572     test_cmp expect error
 573
 574 - Don't break the TAP output
 575
 576   The raw output from your test may be interpreted by a TAP harness. TAP
 577   harnesses will ignore everything they don't know about, but don't step
 578   on their toes in these areas:
 579
 580   - Don't print lines like "$x..$y" where $x and $y are integers.
 581
 582   - Don't print lines that begin with "ok" or "not ok".
 583
 584   TAP harnesses expect a line that begins with either "ok" and "not
 585   ok" to signal a test passed or failed (and our harness already
 586   produces such lines), so your script shouldn't emit such lines to
 587   their output.
 588
 589   You can glean some further possible issues from the TAP grammar
 590   (see https://metacpan.org/pod/TAP::Parser::Grammar#TAP-GRAMMAR)
 591   but the best indication is to just run the tests with prove(1),
 592   it'll complain if anything is amiss.
 593
 594
 595Skipping tests
 596--------------
 597
 598If you need to skip tests you should do so by using the three-arg form
 599of the test_* functions (see the "Test harness library" section
 600below), e.g.:
 601
 602    test_expect_success PERL 'I need Perl' '
 603        perl -e "hlagh() if unf_unf()"
 604    '
 605
 606The advantage of skipping tests like this is that platforms that don't
 607have the PERL and other optional dependencies get an indication of how
 608many tests they're missing.
 609
 610If the test code is too hairy for that (i.e. does a lot of setup work
 611outside test assertions) you can also skip all remaining tests by
 612setting skip_all and immediately call test_done:
 613
 614        if ! test_have_prereq PERL
 615        then
 616            skip_all='skipping perl interface tests, perl not available'
 617            test_done
 618        fi
 619
 620The string you give to skip_all will be used as an explanation for why
 621the test was skipped.
 622
 623End with test_done
 624------------------
 625
 626Your script will be a sequence of tests, using helper functions
 627from the test harness library.  At the end of the script, call
 628'test_done'.
 629
 630
 631Test harness library
 632--------------------
 633
 634There are a handful helper functions defined in the test harness
 635library for your script to use.
 636
 637 - test_expect_success [<prereq>] <message> <script>
 638
 639   Usually takes two strings as parameters, and evaluates the
 640   <script>.  If it yields success, test is considered
 641   successful.  <message> should state what it is testing.
 642
 643   Example:
 644
 645        test_expect_success \
 646            'git-write-tree should be able to write an empty tree.' \
 647            'tree=$(git-write-tree)'
 648
 649   If you supply three parameters the first will be taken to be a
 650   prerequisite; see the test_set_prereq and test_have_prereq
 651   documentation below:
 652
 653        test_expect_success TTY 'git --paginate rev-list uses a pager' \
 654            ' ... '
 655
 656   You can also supply a comma-separated list of prerequisites, in the
 657   rare case where your test depends on more than one:
 658
 659        test_expect_success PERL,PYTHON 'yo dawg' \
 660            ' test $(perl -E 'print eval "1 +" . qx[python -c "print 2"]') == "4" '
 661
 662 - test_expect_failure [<prereq>] <message> <script>
 663
 664   This is NOT the opposite of test_expect_success, but is used
 665   to mark a test that demonstrates a known breakage.  Unlike
 666   the usual test_expect_success tests, which say "ok" on
 667   success and "FAIL" on failure, this will say "FIXED" on
 668   success and "still broken" on failure.  Failures from these
 669   tests won't cause -i (immediate) to stop.
 670
 671   Like test_expect_success this function can optionally use a three
 672   argument invocation with a prerequisite as the first argument.
 673
 674 - test_debug <script>
 675
 676   This takes a single argument, <script>, and evaluates it only
 677   when the test script is started with --debug command line
 678   argument.  This is primarily meant for use during the
 679   development of a new test script.
 680
 681 - debug <git-command>
 682
 683   Run a git command inside a debugger. This is primarily meant for
 684   use when debugging a failing test script.
 685
 686 - test_done
 687
 688   Your test script must have test_done at the end.  Its purpose
 689   is to summarize successes and failures in the test script and
 690   exit with an appropriate error code.
 691
 692 - test_tick
 693
 694   Make commit and tag names consistent by setting the author and
 695   committer times to defined state.  Subsequent calls will
 696   advance the times by a fixed amount.
 697
 698 - test_commit <message> [<filename> [<contents>]]
 699
 700   Creates a commit with the given message, committing the given
 701   file with the given contents (default for both is to reuse the
 702   message string), and adds a tag (again reusing the message
 703   string as name).  Calls test_tick to make the SHA-1s
 704   reproducible.
 705
 706 - test_merge <message> <commit-or-tag>
 707
 708   Merges the given rev using the given message.  Like test_commit,
 709   creates a tag and calls test_tick before committing.
 710
 711 - test_set_prereq <prereq>
 712
 713   Set a test prerequisite to be used later with test_have_prereq. The
 714   test-lib will set some prerequisites for you, see the
 715   "Prerequisites" section below for a full list of these.
 716
 717   Others you can set yourself and use later with either
 718   test_have_prereq directly, or the three argument invocation of
 719   test_expect_success and test_expect_failure.
 720
 721 - test_have_prereq <prereq>
 722
 723   Check if we have a prerequisite previously set with test_set_prereq.
 724   The most common way to use this explicitly (as opposed to the
 725   implicit use when an argument is passed to test_expect_*) is to skip
 726   all the tests at the start of the test script if we don't have some
 727   essential prerequisite:
 728
 729        if ! test_have_prereq PERL
 730        then
 731            skip_all='skipping perl interface tests, perl not available'
 732            test_done
 733        fi
 734
 735 - test_external [<prereq>] <message> <external> <script>
 736
 737   Execute a <script> with an <external> interpreter (like perl). This
 738   was added for tests like t9700-perl-git.sh which do most of their
 739   work in an external test script.
 740
 741        test_external \
 742            'GitwebCache::*FileCache*' \
 743            perl "$TEST_DIRECTORY"/t9503/test_cache_interface.pl
 744
 745   If the test is outputting its own TAP you should set the
 746   test_external_has_tap variable somewhere before calling the first
 747   test_external* function. See t9700-perl-git.sh for an example.
 748
 749        # The external test will outputs its own plan
 750        test_external_has_tap=1
 751
 752 - test_external_without_stderr [<prereq>] <message> <external> <script>
 753
 754   Like test_external but fail if there's any output on stderr,
 755   instead of checking the exit code.
 756
 757        test_external_without_stderr \
 758            'Perl API' \
 759            perl "$TEST_DIRECTORY"/t9700/test.pl
 760
 761 - test_expect_code <exit-code> <command>
 762
 763   Run a command and ensure that it exits with the given exit code.
 764   For example:
 765
 766        test_expect_success 'Merge with d/f conflicts' '
 767                test_expect_code 1 git merge "merge msg" B master
 768        '
 769
 770 - test_must_fail [<options>] <git-command>
 771
 772   Run a git command and ensure it fails in a controlled way.  Use
 773   this instead of "! <git-command>".  When git-command dies due to a
 774   segfault, test_must_fail diagnoses it as an error; "! <git-command>"
 775   treats it as just another expected failure, which would let such a
 776   bug go unnoticed.
 777
 778   Accepts the following options:
 779
 780     ok=<signal-name>[,<...>]:
 781       Don't treat an exit caused by the given signal as error.
 782       Multiple signals can be specified as a comma separated list.
 783       Currently recognized signal names are: sigpipe, success.
 784       (Don't use 'success', use 'test_might_fail' instead.)
 785
 786 - test_might_fail [<options>] <git-command>
 787
 788   Similar to test_must_fail, but tolerate success, too.  Use this
 789   instead of "<git-command> || :" to catch failures due to segv.
 790
 791   Accepts the same options as test_must_fail.
 792
 793 - test_cmp <expected> <actual>
 794
 795   Check whether the content of the <actual> file matches the
 796   <expected> file.  This behaves like "cmp" but produces more
 797   helpful output when the test is run with "-v" option.
 798
 799 - test_cmp_rev <expected> <actual>
 800
 801   Check whether the <expected> rev points to the same commit as the
 802   <actual> rev.
 803
 804 - test_line_count (= | -lt | -ge | ...) <length> <file>
 805
 806   Check whether a file has the length it is expected to.
 807
 808 - test_path_is_file <path> [<diagnosis>]
 809   test_path_is_dir <path> [<diagnosis>]
 810   test_path_is_missing <path> [<diagnosis>]
 811
 812   Check if the named path is a file, if the named path is a
 813   directory, or if the named path does not exist, respectively,
 814   and fail otherwise, showing the <diagnosis> text.
 815
 816 - test_when_finished <script>
 817
 818   Prepend <script> to a list of commands to run to clean up
 819   at the end of the current test.  If some clean-up command
 820   fails, the test will not pass.
 821
 822   Example:
 823
 824        test_expect_success 'branch pointing to non-commit' '
 825                git rev-parse HEAD^{tree} >.git/refs/heads/invalid &&
 826                test_when_finished "git update-ref -d refs/heads/invalid" &&
 827                ...
 828        '
 829
 830 - test_write_lines <lines>
 831
 832   Write <lines> on standard output, one line per argument.
 833   Useful to prepare multi-line files in a compact form.
 834
 835   Example:
 836
 837        test_write_lines a b c d e f g >foo
 838
 839   Is a more compact equivalent of:
 840        cat >foo <<-EOF
 841        a
 842        b
 843        c
 844        d
 845        e
 846        f
 847        g
 848        EOF
 849
 850
 851 - test_pause
 852
 853        This command is useful for writing and debugging tests and must be
 854        removed before submitting. It halts the execution of the test and
 855        spawns a shell in the trash directory. Exit the shell to continue
 856        the test. Example:
 857
 858        test_expect_success 'test' '
 859                git do-something >actual &&
 860                test_pause &&
 861                test_cmp expected actual
 862        '
 863
 864 - test_ln_s_add <path1> <path2>
 865
 866   This function helps systems whose filesystem does not support symbolic
 867   links. Use it to add a symbolic link entry to the index when it is not
 868   important that the file system entry is a symbolic link, i.e., instead
 869   of the sequence
 870
 871        ln -s foo bar &&
 872        git add bar
 873
 874   Sometimes it is possible to split a test in a part that does not need
 875   the symbolic link in the file system and a part that does; then only
 876   the latter part need be protected by a SYMLINKS prerequisite (see below).
 877
 878 - test_oid_init
 879
 880   This function loads facts and useful object IDs related to the hash
 881   algorithm(s) in use from the files in t/oid-info.
 882
 883 - test_oid_cache
 884
 885   This function reads per-hash algorithm information from standard
 886   input (usually a heredoc) in the format described in
 887   t/oid-info/README.  This is useful for test-specific values, such as
 888   object IDs, which must vary based on the hash algorithm.
 889
 890   Certain fixed values, such as hash sizes and common placeholder
 891   object IDs, can be loaded with test_oid_init (described above).
 892
 893 - test_oid <key>
 894
 895   This function looks up a value for the hash algorithm in use, based
 896   on the key given.  The value must have been loaded using
 897   test_oid_init or test_oid_cache.  Providing an unknown key is an
 898   error.
 899
 900Prerequisites
 901-------------
 902
 903These are the prerequisites that the test library predefines with
 904test_have_prereq.
 905
 906See the prereq argument to the test_* functions in the "Test harness
 907library" section above and the "test_have_prereq" function for how to
 908use these, and "test_set_prereq" for how to define your own.
 909
 910 - PYTHON
 911
 912   Git wasn't compiled with NO_PYTHON=YesPlease. Wrap any tests that
 913   need Python with this.
 914
 915 - PERL
 916
 917   Git wasn't compiled with NO_PERL=YesPlease.
 918
 919   Even without the PERL prerequisite, tests can assume there is a
 920   usable perl interpreter at $PERL_PATH, though it need not be
 921   particularly modern.
 922
 923 - POSIXPERM
 924
 925   The filesystem supports POSIX style permission bits.
 926
 927 - BSLASHPSPEC
 928
 929   Backslashes in pathspec are not directory separators. This is not
 930   set on Windows. See 6fd1106a for details.
 931
 932 - EXECKEEPSPID
 933
 934   The process retains the same pid across exec(2). See fb9a2bea for
 935   details.
 936
 937 - PIPE
 938
 939   The filesystem we're on supports creation of FIFOs (named pipes)
 940   via mkfifo(1).
 941
 942 - SYMLINKS
 943
 944   The filesystem we're on supports symbolic links. E.g. a FAT
 945   filesystem doesn't support these. See 704a3143 for details.
 946
 947 - SANITY
 948
 949   Test is not run by root user, and an attempt to write to an
 950   unwritable file is expected to fail correctly.
 951
 952 - PCRE
 953
 954   Git was compiled with support for PCRE. Wrap any tests
 955   that use git-grep --perl-regexp or git-grep -P in these.
 956
 957 - LIBPCRE1
 958
 959   Git was compiled with PCRE v1 support via
 960   USE_LIBPCRE1=YesPlease. Wrap any PCRE using tests that for some
 961   reason need v1 of the PCRE library instead of v2 in these.
 962
 963 - LIBPCRE2
 964
 965   Git was compiled with PCRE v2 support via
 966   USE_LIBPCRE2=YesPlease. Wrap any PCRE using tests that for some
 967   reason need v2 of the PCRE library instead of v1 in these.
 968
 969 - CASE_INSENSITIVE_FS
 970
 971   Test is run on a case insensitive file system.
 972
 973 - UTF8_NFD_TO_NFC
 974
 975   Test is run on a filesystem which converts decomposed utf-8 (nfd)
 976   to precomposed utf-8 (nfc).
 977
 978 - PTHREADS
 979
 980   Git wasn't compiled with NO_PTHREADS=YesPlease.
 981
 982Tips for Writing Tests
 983----------------------
 984
 985As with any programming projects, existing programs are the best
 986source of the information.  However, do _not_ emulate
 987t0000-basic.sh when writing your tests.  The test is special in
 988that it tries to validate the very core of GIT.  For example, it
 989knows that there will be 256 subdirectories under .git/objects/,
 990and it knows that the object ID of an empty tree is a certain
 99140-byte string.  This is deliberately done so in t0000-basic.sh
 992because the things the very basic core test tries to achieve is
 993to serve as a basis for people who are changing the GIT internal
 994drastically.  For these people, after making certain changes,
 995not seeing failures from the basic test _is_ a failure.  And
 996such drastic changes to the core GIT that even changes these
 997otherwise supposedly stable object IDs should be accompanied by
 998an update to t0000-basic.sh.
 999
1000However, other tests that simply rely on basic parts of the core
1001GIT working properly should not have that level of intimate
1002knowledge of the core GIT internals.  If all the test scripts
1003hardcoded the object IDs like t0000-basic.sh does, that defeats
1004the purpose of t0000-basic.sh, which is to isolate that level of
1005validation in one place.  Your test also ends up needing
1006updating when such a change to the internal happens, so do _not_
1007do it and leave the low level of validation to t0000-basic.sh.
1008
1009Test coverage
1010-------------
1011
1012You can use the coverage tests to find code paths that are not being
1013used or properly exercised yet.
1014
1015To do that, run the coverage target at the top-level (not in the t/
1016directory):
1017
1018    make coverage
1019
1020That'll compile Git with GCC's coverage arguments, and generate a test
1021report with gcov after the tests finish. Running the coverage tests
1022can take a while, since running the tests in parallel is incompatible
1023with GCC's coverage mode.
1024
1025After the tests have run you can generate a list of untested
1026functions:
1027
1028    make coverage-untested-functions
1029
1030You can also generate a detailed per-file HTML report using the
1031Devel::Cover module. To install it do:
1032
1033   # On Debian or Ubuntu:
1034   sudo aptitude install libdevel-cover-perl
1035
1036   # From the CPAN with cpanminus
1037   curl -L http://cpanmin.us | perl - --sudo --self-upgrade
1038   cpanm --sudo Devel::Cover
1039
1040Then, at the top-level:
1041
1042    make cover_db_html
1043
1044That'll generate a detailed cover report in the "cover_db_html"
1045directory, which you can then copy to a webserver, or inspect locally
1046in a browser.